What has gone underplayed in today's widespread outrage over Donald Trump's dismissal of John McCain's war heroism is that the GOP national-poll front-runner's comments, besides demonstrating an idiocratic lack of basic human judgment and decency, are also dead wrong. Because this is Donald Trump, and Donald Trump is a vulgar anti-intellect who cannot string a coherent paragraph together, his full statement contradicts itself several times within 57 short words. So let's just focus on the bolded part from his remarks: He's not a war hero. He's a war hero because he was captured. I like people that weren't captured—OK, I...

1) Â“In Vietnam, our soldiers came back and they were reviled as baby killers, in shame and humiliation. It isnÂ’t happening now, but I will tell you, there has never been an [American] army as violent and murderous as our army has been in Iraq.Â” â€”Seymour Hersh2) Â“I haven't seen American Sniper, but correct me if I'm wrong: An occupier mows down faceless Iraqis but the real victim is his anguished soul.Â” Â– Max Blumenthal3) Â“Put a man in uniform, preferably a white man, give him a gun, and Americans will worship him. It is a particularly childish trait, of...

Let me see if I understand this: Chris Kyle was not a hero, but Brian Williams was? What do we make of Williams' attempt to snatch some vicarious honor? The response to "American Sniper" should not surprise us. Bill Maher called Chris Kyle a "psychopath patriot." It's more than likely that Maher thinks all patriots are a bit unhinged. Lindy West, writing in The Guardian, called Kyle a "hate-filled killer," and The Atlantic's Megan Garber wondered whether "heroism is still heroism when you're motivated by hatred." Spawned in the Vietnam era, the modern left cut its teeth defaming America. That...

Fifty years ago this Saturday, former British Prime Minister Winston Churchill died at age 90. Churchill is remembered for his multiple nonstop careers as a statesman, cabinet minister, politician, journalist, Nobel laureate historian, and combat veteran. He began his career serving the British military as a Victorian-era mounted lancer and ended it as custodian of Britain's nuclear deterrent. But he is most renowned for an astounding five-year-tenure as Britain's wartime prime minister from May 10, 1940, to June 26, 1945, when he was voted out of office not long after the surrender of Nazi Germany. Churchill took over the day...

Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu said Saturday evening that he spoke by phone with Celine Charki, who was one of the histages held at the kosher supermarket in Paris Friday. “Celine told me about the terrorist's unfathomable cruelty and the heroism of a Jewish youth who tried to take his gun and shoot him,” he said. The heroic action was apparently taken by hostage Johan Cohen, who was killed. .....

BY THE THOUSANDS they streamed to Yanuh-Jat, Israelis of every description making their way on Wednesday to the remote northern Galilee district, where a fallen hero was to be buried with full honors. Israel's president, Reuven Rivlin, was there to pay his respects; so were the minister of internal security and the nation's top police commissioner. From around the country, hundreds of black-hatted haredi ("ultra-Orthodox") Jews came on chartered buses, disembarking to join throngs of Arabic-speaking Druze in traditional white turbans, police officers in dress blues, and so many other mourners that even the roofs of nearby homes were crowded...

They were some of the driving forces behind creation of the Murray County Veterans Memorial Park, but now the members of Chatsworth American Legion Post 167 have sent a letter to county Sole Commissioner Brittany Pittman asking that the post’s name be removed from monuments at the park and the refund of $10,000 in funds donated for the park. “We can no longer support the park in any fashion or form,” said Bruce Kendrick, a spokesman for the post. Soon after the park, which is off Hyden Tyler Road, was dedicated four years ago, post members discovered problems with some...

The vast majority of Americans have never met Phil Weinberg. But that isn't because he's unimportant. It's because he is important. Like millions of Americans who toil largely in anonymity, participating daily in acts of courage and generosity, Phil has never been on CNN or Fox News; while he subscribes to The Wall Street Journal, he's never had his picture dot pixelated. That's because he, like so many other Americans, is too busy making the country work. Phil was born at the Beth Israel Hospital in Boston in 1951, just down the block from Fenway Park, and grew up a...

I discovered someone this week who embodied the practices that I believe would restore our republic to its former heights of glory. He's not a politician -- no surprise there. He's not a television pundit. He hasn't written a book. He's not a household name. He wasn't a war hero, but he did serve in the U.S. military and was a culture and community warrior who bore a few classic American characteristics that our country needs now more than ever. Charles H. (Chuck) Norris, 88, of rural Mason City, Iowa, was born July 23, 1925 -- just four years after...

There are some days when a column comes easy, when it just flows out in one straight series of fingers tapping on keys, a click on save, and calling it a day. Most days, in fact. Then there are other days when there are so many ideas, so many things you want to say, floating around in your head that the task of organizing them seems impossible. It’s Friday night, June 6th, the 70th anniversary of what I consider to be the most important day in modern history, and I have no idea what to write. The idea of weighing...

"Dad loves #scifi because it's such a great way to explore the things that matter most." "Themes of #hope, #courage, good conquering evil -- why dad loves #comics." These are some of the tweets involving some well-known Hollywood names and faces on Twitter lately. In a forum not always known for bringing people together, a young woman has succeeded in a great adventure of celebrating life, even as her beloved father's comes to an end. Superheroes were the trending theme, and the most powerful of them all is a man named Stratford Caldecott. Since his Marvel comic-collecting boyhood, he's...

The Grassbaugh family has given more than most to America. They keep giving. This is their story. On Veteran’s Day 2007, I was at Arlington National Cemetery representing The American Legion at a solemn ceremony held at the Memorial Amphitheater. After the ceremony I walked down to Section 60, which is the section of the cemetery where many of our fallen from The Global War on Terrorism are buried. While in Section 60 I saw a young Army officer in dress blue uniform, the usual uniform of those personnel with duty at Arlington National Cemetery. I asked the officer if...

An eight-year-old New York boy who rescued six of his relatives from a fire before tragically dying in the blaze is being hailed as a hero by local and national news media. When an electrical fire broke out in his grandfather’s trailer home in Penfield, New York, Tyler Doohan was the only person to take notice — everyone else was asleep. The young boy quickly alerted his grandmother, aunt and cousins, rescuing children as young as 4 and 6 from the fast-moving blaze. With the fire roaring, Doohan went back in to help his grandfather. His body was found...

Sometimes heroes are not recognized when they should be. The case of COL (RET) Kathy Platoni, and her fellow survivors and victims of the Ft. Hood Terrorist Attack of November, 2009, is a sad example of this. The prevalence of political correctness is not helping in this situation. COL Platoni believes she is far from alone and that there are many heroes of this horrific terrorist attack who remain forgotten. Dr. Platoni, a now retired Army Reserve psychologist who has had her own private practice for 20 years and has been a practicing psychologist for 34 years, has had a...

On Nov. 29, 1970, 43 U.S. servicemen gathered in the Hoa Lo prison compound, often called the “Hanoi Hilton,” and performed an act of retaliation— a church service. Nine days earlier, after a failed attempt by U.S. Special Forces to liberate the prisoners, the North Vietnamese captors had removed them from their cells and incarcerated them in a single holding area. For several men, it was the first face-to-face encounter with friends they had made through tap-code communication. The first Sunday after they were removed from their cells, they attempted to hold a church service but were threatened with severe...

We no longer have to play at goblins and ghosts on Halloween. We've got real snoops and authentic spooks, and they're plenty scary, reading our mail and tracing us through social media. Safety and security are the crucial domestic interests in the high-tech world where we all live. We feel helpless in trying to keep control over our most minute musings; we're sure that Big Brother is watching us, and not necessarily to watch over us. It's the season when doubts and fears, some real and some not, assail. We're frustrated with the breakout of Obamacare, which betrayed its...

While gridlock is the game in Washington, pilfering and degradation apparently are the pastime of some unpatriotic thugs at war memorials across the country. For me, that is about as low as a nation and its people can go. This past week in Natick, Mass., veterans and other law-abiding citizens were stunned to discover that a soldier's helmet -- from one who died in battle -- had gone missing from the community's prized Fallen Soldier's Memorial. The helmet was cemented atop a rifle that is part of a display that also includes a piece of the twin towers and two...

Next week, "never forget" will resound across America as citizens mark a dozen years since the 9/11 terrorist attack and one year since the bloody disaster in Benghazi. But who will remember the American heroes who came under siege at Camp Bastion in Afghanistan on 9/14/12? Two heroic U.S. Marines -- Lt. Col. Christopher Raible and Sgt. Bradley Atwell -- perished in the monstrous battle last year, and nearly a dozen others were injured. What happened at Camp Bastion and whether the Obama administration has learned from the deadly incident are timely questions as Washington prepares for war again in...

Bystanders Aid Bicyclist Hit by Car in Tonawanda Tonawanda, NY (WBEN) A young bicyclist was rescued by a number of onlookers after he was hit by a car at a busy Tonawanda intersection Thursday afternoon. Angelo tells WBEN's Tom Bauerle he was about to make a turn at Sheridan and Delaware when he saw a car hit a young man on a bicycle. "She says he just came in front of her," says Angelo. He cleared the intersection and jumped into action, and was not alone. "It had to be at least a dozen people, everybody, men, women..." described Angelo....

It made the papers, but was covered far from sufficiently, when Elisha “Ray” Nance died a few years ago at the age of 94. You may never have heard of him, but he was well known around Bedford, Virginia, a picturesque town located at the feet of the Blue Ridge Peaks of Otter. He delivered mail in that neck of the woods for many years. But it was for what he did before becoming a letter carrier that he should be best remembered. Ray Nance was one of The Bedford Boys. In fact, he was the last surviving member of...

I will be at Cowboys Stadium in Arlington, Texas on Monday, and I know I will take many of you with me in spirit. But apparently not everybody. The occasion will be the Texas memorial service for Chris Kyle, an American hero in every sense of the term. But if it is one battlefield where he earned his honor as our most prolific sniper, it is another battlefield that has sprouted since his death. This arena is a war of words, sparked by the strong opinions of a variety of people on what Chris Kyle meant to our nation. To...

During solemn hearings on the floor of the U.S. Senate investigating drugs and terrorism a swarthy Hispanic who landed on U.S. shores with the clothes on his back and was graciously put on the path to U.S. citizenship repeatedly insulted a U.S. Senator who was also a highly decorated war veteran, an Ivy League graduate and a scion of a wealthy and politically-connected American family. The smartmouthed Latino was accused of drug-running and money-laundering to finance terrorists. He was testifying under oath –sneeringly and with a heavy Spanish accent-- upon a subpoena by lawmakers of the nation that had shown...

For just as politics can save the culture, politics can also destroy it. Which brings me to Thomas Lopez, a 21-year old lifeguard in South Florida. Two days before the Fourth of July, Lopez was fired for helping rescue a man drowning 1,500 feet outside of his designated zone. "It was a long run, but someone needed my help. I wasn't going to say no," Lopez told the South Florida Sun-Sentinel and other media outlets. When Lopez filed his incident report, he was canned on the spot. "They didn't tell me in a bad way. It was more like they...

The Man Who Shot Liberty Valance (1962) Saturday night is movie night at No-house. If you're looking for a good one, you'll find it in the "The Man Who Shot Liberty Valance" starring John Wayne, Jimmy Stewart, Edmund O'Brien, Vera Miles and Lee Marvin as the most debased villain you've seen since Stephen Hanks. It is directed by John Ford and shot expertly in black and white. From the moment that Marvin snarls onto the screen to rob the stagecoach bringing eastern lawyer Stewart out west, you know you're going to be interested til the end. Stewart intervenes to protect...

Â The tenth anniversary of 9/11 is upon us. Rather than ruminating on pious platitudes or reporting the trite remarks of gaseous politicians, I thought it might be appropriate to update some prior columns that attempt to shed light on the subject. This is this third. A Memory Check for Americans David C. Stolinsky Sept. 5, 2011 Upgrading the memory of a computer can improve performance dramatically. So can upgrading the memory of a nation. But before you upgrade the memory of a computer, it is best to check what memory you have. To do this you can download...

Â The tenth anniversary of 9/11 is upon us. Rather than ruminating on pious platitudes or reporting the trite remarks of gaseous politicians, I thought it might be appropriate to update some prior columns that attempt to shed light on the subject. This is this first. Where Do Heroes Come From? David C. Stolinsky Sept. 1, 2011 Army Staff Sergeant Leroy A. Petry earned the ninth Medal of Honor awarded during the current war in Afghanistan and Iraq, and only the second given to a living recipient. Despite prior wounds, Petry picked up an enemy grenade and threw it...

A WAR hero's medals have revealed the untold story of a Scottish soldier who survived three years of suffering building the notorious Burma Railway. Kenneth McLeod, who has died aged 92, was captured by the Japanese in the Second World War and was one of the last surviving veterans who worked on the bridge over the River Kwai. Now his daughter and son are donating his war medals, Glengarry bonnet and sporran to the Argyll and Sutherland Highlanders museum at Stirling Castle, where he was based more than 70 years ago. Mr McLeod, of Bridge of Weir, Renfrewshire, was...

On the afternoon of Friday, March 11th, Hideaki Akaiwa was at his job, dully trudging out the final bitter minutes of his work week in his office just outside the port city of Ishinomaki in Japan's Miyagi Prefecture. What this guy's day job actually is, I honestly have no idea, but based on the extremely limited information I have on the guy I can only presume that his daily nine-to-five routine probably falls somewhere between the motorcycle chase scenes from the movie Akira and John Rambo's antics in the book version of First Blood on the ridiculousness/badassitude scale. But that's...

CUMBERLAND Â— Two local mountains need new names, a group of state senators say, and they want a commission created to select new monikers for Negro Mountain and Polish Mountain which Â“reflect more accurately the history and culture of the region within which they are located.Â” None of the nine senators sponsoring Senate Joint Resolution 3 represent the region where the two mountains rise in the Allegheny Mountain range, with Negro Mountain in Garrett County reaching a height of 3,075 feet and Polish Mountain in Allegany County climbing 1,783 feet from sea level. The senate resolution isnÂ’t too popular with...

SAN ANTONIO - A real estate agent says she owes her life to five students who helped her escape a client who brutally attacked her. Janice Tisdale says she had just finished showing the man the upscale northwest side home and was reaching for the front door's lock when he struck her head with a pole from inside the house. She described it as a pole used to pull a staircase from the ceiling. Tisdale says the man demanded $4,000 and as she was bleeding on the front porch and still talking to him, a golf cart passed by, followed...

Tango Mike Mike (394 votes, average: 4.35 out of 5) Loading ... Share9774 Sign Up for the Video Of The Day Tango Mike Mike is the story of Green Beret Roy P. Benavidez and his heroic action in Vietnam that earned him the Medal of Honor. His story is truly amazing and is a tribute to all the Vietnam Vets whose stories haven’t been told. Check your library for the book “The Last Medal of Honor: The True Story of Green Beret Sergeant Roy P. Benavidez and His Six-Hour Battle in Hell” if you want to read more about Roy....

Parents Attack Carjacker to Save Their Baby They were standing just a few yards away, talking to family in the final hours of a long road trip, when a man jumped into their idling car at a Kansas City, Mo., gas station and sped off with their 6-month-old daughter strapped in the back seat. Their hearts pounding, Melanie and Aaron Richman ran. She was able to grab onto the passenger side and smash the window with her elbow. He somehow pulled himself inside the car and started punching and kicking the carjacker.

EL PASO — Fernando Espinosa always thought of his Boy Scout experience as a way to learn about leadership and helping others. But he never expected his 10 years of scouting to help him become a hero. On Jan. 22, without thinking twice, Espinosa pushed teacher Glenda Tanner, 47, out of the way of a car at a crosswalk in front of Franklin High School. The car struck Espinosa, who received a head injury from the windshield and hurt his left knee. ... For his bravery, Espinosa, 17, will be awarded the Honor Medal with Crossed Palms on Friday at...

This weekend’s New York Times Sunday Magazine contains a fascinating article that hits quite close to home for me. Centered around the story of a 25-year-old Marine who — despite horrific wounds — had the presence of mind and courage to scoop a live grenade under his body to save the lives of his comrades, the article asks a simple question: Why is the military awarding so few medals of honor? Are we less courageous now? Or is the military stifling valor awards in a labyrinthine bureaucracy dominated by rear echelon second-guessers? The numbers are stunning: Despite its symbolic...

They’re calling him a Frenchman, but even that is uncertain. All anyone really knows is that New York’s mystery hero leaped into the icy East River to help rescue a 2-year-old girl and then disappeared into the city. The man has not been seen since Saturday afternoon, when he helped rescue Bridgette Sheriden after she plunged 20 feet into the river while visiting a tourist attraction at the South Street Seaport with her parents. Jumping into the water fully clothed, not even pausing to take his phone from his pocket, he helped Bridgette’s father, David Anderson, stay afloat after he...

Services were pending Wednesday for a retired Army colonel who, at the time of his death in Waco, was believed to be the most-decorated living American soldier. Retired Army Col. Robert L. Howard, 70, who died Wednesday in Waco, was a Medal of Honor winner who at the time of his death was believed to be the most-decorated living American soldier. Howard will be buried at Arlington National Cemetery. Services were pending Wednesday through OakCrest Funeral Home in Waco. Texas Gov. Rick Perry issued a statement late Wednesday afternoon in which he said Howard “was the bravest soldier I...

One of Americas Greatest Speeches General Douglas Macarthur's "Farewell to the Corps" Delivered12 May 1962, at West Point, NY ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ General Westmoreland, General Grove, distinguished guests, and gentlemen of the Corps!As I was leaving the hotel this morning, a doorman asked me, "Where are you bound for, General?" And when I replied, "West Point," he remarked, "Beautiful place. Have you ever been there before?"No human being could fail to be deeply moved by such a tribute as this [Thayer Award]. Coming from a profession I have served so long, and a people I have loved so well, it fills...

Fort Hood, Texas (CNN) -- The police officer who ended the Fort Hood massacre by shooting the suspect was known as the enforcer on her street, a "tough woman" who patrolled her neighborhood and once stopped burglars at her house. "If you come in, I'm going to shoot," Kimberly Munley told the would-be intruders last year. It was Munley who arrived quickly Thursday at the scene of the worst massacre at an Army base in U.S. history, where 13 people were killed. She confronted the alleged gunman, Maj. Nidal Malik Hasan, and shot him four times. Munley was wounded in...

A bomb disposal specialist who had defused more than 60 improvised explosive devices in Afghanistan died when one went off as he tried to disarm it. Staff Sergeant Olaf Schmid, 30, was on his last day before two weeks of rest and recuperation after a five-month tour in charge of an improvised explosive device (IED) search team in Helmand province. He was due back there next month. He died instantly when an IED that he was examining by the British forward operation base in the town of Sangin exploded on Saturday. The Ministry of Defence said that Staff Sergeant Schmid...

The last British survivor of the World War I trenches, Harry Patch, has died at the age of 111. Mr Patch was conscripted into the Army aged 18 and fought in the Battle of Passchendaele at Ypres in 1917 in which more than 70,000 British soldiers died. He was raised in Coombe Down, near Bath, and had been living at a care home in Wells, Somerset. The oldest WWI veteran Henry Allingham, who served in the Royal Navy and the RAF, died at the age of 113 a week ago.

Beverly Smith looked like a movie star Thursday afternoon, surrounded not by body guards but by the four Mormon missionaries she credits with getting her to safety during a three-alarm fire. The 83-year-old woman was among several residents forced from their homes when a blaze destroyed a 16-unit building at the River Ranch apartments in southwest Fort Worth, behind Hulen Mall. At least 40 people were displaced, and five apartments in a nearby building were damaged, officials said No injuries were reported. "I was screaming for help, but no one heard me," said Smith, who has lived at the complex...

When one reads the new atheists, one gets the impression that the influence of Christianity has been entirely baleful, that Christianity’s contribution to morality has been entirely negative, and that the United States, far from being a Christian country historically, is really the finest flower of the anti-religious Enlightenment, and that we therefore ought to stamp out all public manifestations of Christianity, which will most likely wither away anyway as Americans become as sensible as contemporary Britons and Scandinavians. These peculiar beliefs often find expression in lawsuits trying to suppress all public expressions of Christianity. It is therefore with some...

Dedicated: Nurse Debbie Noble, right, walked to treat kidney patient Steph Crawford Nurse walked nine miles in the snow to save my lifeAnna Davis 13.02.09 A nurse walked nine miles through deep snow two days in a row to save the life of a patient who required kidney dialysis and was trapped at home.Renal nurse Debbie Noble, 49, made the four-hour round trip to help Steph Crawford fearing she could die without the treatment.Mrs Crawford, 45, from Ewell, suffers from kidney failure. She could not drive to her usual dialysis centre in Kingston, and ambulances could not...

An annual tribute to World War II heroism will take place Sunday at Tucson's veterans hospital. The Four Chaplains Memorial Service honors the actions of four men of faith who died in the sinking of a U.S. Army transport ship after giving away their life jackets to fellow troops. The chaplains of different faiths and denominations — Lt. George L. Fox, a Methodist; Lt. Alexander D. Goode, a rabbi; Lt. John P. Washington, a Roman Catholic priest; and Lt. Clark V. Poling, Dutch Reformed — linked arms and went down praying as the ship sank from a German torpedo hit....

As disasters go, this one was terrible, but not unique, certainly not among the worst on the roster of U.S. air crashes. There was the unusual element of the bridge, of course, and the fact that the plane clipped it at a moment of high traffic, one routine thus intersecting another and disrupting both...

EXCLUSIVE Brits fight off deadly pirates By DAVID WILLETTS Published: Today A TEAM of hero Brits battled back deadly pirates four times in 24 hours armed only with Molotov cocktails and flare guns, The Sun can reveal. The three-man ex-military security team were hired to protect cargo ship S. Venus in the pirate infested waters of the Gulf of Aden off the Africa coast. On four separate occasions between New Year's Eve and New Year's Day Somali pirates – armed with AK-47s and rocket propelled grenades (RPG) – tried...

A hero Royal Marine saved 130 soldiers from certain death when he rugby tackled a suicide attacker before he could detonate a huge motorcycle bomb. The 40-year-old Marine saw the Afghan insurgent reaching for a yellow detonator button on the bike and leapt into action to drag him away.He foiled a cunningly planned attack in which the same motorcycle had been checked by the same troops just hours earlier when its panniers had been packed with potatoes instead of explosives.The suicide bomb contained 70 kilograms of explosives and was so huge it would have destroyed everything within 180 metres...

WASHINGTON, Oct. 8, 2008 – Army Sgt. Gregory S. Ruske is quick to call himself an ordinary soldier, but later this month the Army Reserve will single him out for extraordinary heroism in Afghanistan that earned him the Silver Star medal. Army Sgt. Gregory S. Ruske will become the fourth Army Reservist to receive the Silver Star for heroism demonstrated after he and his fellow soldiers were ambushed in Afghanistan’s Kapisa province April 21, 2008. U.S. Army photo (Click photo for screen-resolution image);high-resolution image available. The 28-year-old Colorado Springs, Colo., native will become the fourth Army reservist to receive the...

Capt. Bruno de Solenni, R.I.P. [Kathryn Jean Lopez] A brother of a friend of mine (Pia) was killed by an IED in Afghanistan this weekend, along with two Afghan interpreters. A fellow soldier was injured. I was just reading a letter Bruno's hometown paper published before he died; what he has to say and who he was and what he sacrificed and the grief his family suffers are reminders of the tremendous burden so few of us bear for freedom: The bad days are when you put your buddy in a body bag and you don't even recognize him because...